Page:English as we speak it in Ireland - Joyce.djvu/60

CH. IV.] The usual way in Irish of saying he died is fuair sé bás, i.e. ‘he found (or got) death,’ and this is sometimes imitated in Anglo-Irish:—‘He was near getting his death from that wetting’; ‘come out of that draught or you'll get your death.’

The following curious form of expression is very often heard:—‘Remember you have gloves to buy for me in town’; instead of ‘you have to buy me gloves.’ ‘What else have you to do to-day?’ ‘I have a top to bring to Johnny, and when I come home I have the cows to put in the stable’—instead of ‘I have to bring a top’—‘I have to put the cows.’ This is an imitation of Irish, though not, I think, a direct translation.

What may be called the Narrative Infinitive is a very usual construction in Irish. An Irish writer, relating a past event (and using the Irish language) instead of beginning his narrative in this way, ‘Donall O'Brien went on an expedition against the English of Athlone,’ will begin ‘Donall O'Brien to go on an expedition,’ &c. No Irish examples of this need be given here, as they will be found in every page of the Irish Annals, as well as in other Irish writings. Nothing like this exists in English, but the people constantly imitate it in the Anglo-Irish speech. ‘How did you come by all that money?’ Reply:—‘To get into the heart of the fair’ (meaning ‘I got into the heart of the fair’), and to cry old china, &c. (Gerald Griffin.) 'How was that, Lowry?' asks Mr. Daly: and Lowry answers:—‘Some of them Garryowen boys sir to get about Danny Mann.’ (Gerald Griffin: ‘Collegians.’) ‘How did the mare get that hurt?’ ‘Oh Tom Cody to leap